Abortion drastically limited in Florida, the abortion pill suspended by a decision of the Supreme Court… The United States experienced a black Thursday in terms of voluntary termination of pregnancy. The law passed by the Florida parliament, and signed Thursday April 13 by Governor Ron DeSantis, prohibits abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy. An “extreme and dangerous” text, castigated the White House.
A few hours earlier, the executive was already forced to urgently appeal to the Supreme Court, dominated by conservatives since its profound reshuffle by Donald Trump. The temple of law is called upon to take up the pill case to challenge the restrictions on access to mifepristone, decided by a Court of Appeal.
Overnight Wednesday-Thursday, a panel of three judges based in the conservative South limited its use to the first seven weeks of pregnancy, up from ten previously, and banned it from being mailed. The consequences are potentially immense on access to abortion: combined with another cachet, mifepristone is used for more than half of abortions in the United States.
American states free to legislate since June 2022
At the origin of this legal saga, the decision last week of a federal judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, known for his ultraconservative views, who had withdrawn the marketing authorization for the pill. Despite the scientific consensus, he considered that mifepristone posed risks to the health of women and suspended its authorization for the entire United States. He had provided for a one-week delay before his decision would apply, in order to give the federal government time to appeal.
On Monday April 10, the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden had asked a New Orleans Court of Appeals to intervene to block the “extraordinary and unprecedented” judgment of Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by Donald Trump, ” pending the substantive review” of the file.
But the decision did not agree with the Biden administration, in many ways limiting access to this cachet. She “comes between doctors and their patients,” criticized Vice President Kamala Harris. She has been very involved in the abortion file since the Supreme Court annulled the constitutional protection of this right in June 2022, revoking the judgment. Roe vs. Wade and thus leaving the American states to legislate on the right to abortion.
These 13 states that have completely banned abortion
Several US states have banned abortion following the Supreme Court ruling. As specified the New York Times, abortion is prohibited without exception for rape or incest in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas , West Virginia and Wisconsin. In Idaho, a rural and conservative state in the American West, the law allows abortions only to save the life of a pregnant woman.
In Georgia, abortion is prohibited after six weeks of pregnancy – as in Florida, therefore. A lower court judge ruled the ruling unconstitutional in November 2022, but the state Supreme Court later reinstated the ban, the US daily notes. A call is still in progress. In Arizona, abortion is prohibited after 15 weeks of pregnancy. But the application of a separate ban on abortion from 1864, without exception for rape or incest, was blocked there by an appeal court.
In Utah, abortion is banned after 18 weeks of pregnancy, while a separate ban on most abortions has been blocked indefinitely by a judge. In North Carolina this time, abortion is prohibited after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Legal abortion in 27 states
In six states, the ban on abortion is blocked. This is particularly the case in Indiana and Iowa where, for the latter, the ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy has been blocked by a judge since 2019, while the governor is asking for its application. In June 2022, the State Supreme Court overturned a 2018 ruling that the right to abortion was protected by the state Constitution.
In North Dakota, a judge has indefinitely blocked the state’s ban on nearly all abortions. In Montana, three anti-abortion laws were passed in 2021, including a ban on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and they were all blocked by a court. The Supreme Court of this state has ruled that its Constitution protects the right to abortion, specifies the New York Times. In Ohio, a judge has indefinitely blocked the state’s ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Finally, in Wyoming, a judge temporarily blocked the state’s new abortion ban after legal action.
Abortion is legal in 27 other states of the United States: Alaska, Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington DC, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware , Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington State.